Hi, I'm tor Hansen author and biologist today.

你好，我是托爾-漢森，今天是生物學家。

I'm here to answer your questions on twitter.

我在這裡回答你在微博上的問題。

This is biology support at jerry.

這是在傑裡的生物學支持。

Peters asks, are viruses alive.

彼得斯問道，病毒是活的嗎。

Let me answer that question with another question.

讓我用另一個問題來回答這個問題。

What does it mean to be alive?

活著是什麼意思？

Most biologists define life as an organism with cells that respond to their environment and an organism that can reproduce itself.

大多數生物學家將生命定義為具有對環境做出反應的細胞的有機體和能夠自我繁殖的有機體。

Viruses don't meet that definition because they do not have cells.

病毒不符合這個定義，因為它們沒有細胞。

They reproduce only by co opting the reproductive capabilities of a living cell.

它們只通過共同選擇一個活細胞的繁殖能力來進行繁殖。

Yet we see viruses having a very direct impact on our lives and the lives of other creatures in this world.

然而我們看到病毒對我們的生活和這個世界上其他生物的生活有著非常直接的影響。

So it just goes to show us that the very definition of life is still in some ways open to question at sub nom nom nom asks why are succulents such finicky little bitches, succulent plant lives in the particular condition out in the wild where they have adapted to really dry situations where they need to hold a lot of water in their leaves.

是以，這只是向我們表明，生命的定義在某些方面仍然有待商榷，為什麼多汁植物是如此挑剔的小母狗，多汁植物生活在野外的特殊條件下，它們已經適應了真正乾燥的環境，它們需要在葉片中保持大量的水分。

And those are difficult conditions to replicate inside your house, which is part of the reason they can be very difficult to keep as house plants at Hey Adrian asks, seeds are interesting, Who knew that when you eat one you're eating little plant embryos, it's hard to imagine how small a seed can be until you meet the seeds of an orchid.

而這些條件在你的房子裡很難複製，這也是它們很難作為家庭植物飼養的部分原因。 嘿，阿德里安問，種子很有趣，誰知道當你吃一個種子時，你吃的是小植物的胚胎，在你遇到蘭花的種子之前，很難想象一個種子能有多小。

These come from a small orchid in our flora called the spotted coral root and each seed is like a mote of dust.

這些來自於我們植物群中的一種小蘭花，叫做斑紋珊瑚根，每顆種子都像一粒塵埃。

only a few cells organized together, there are approximately one million spotted coral root seeds in this vial, which stands in stark contrast to the world's largest seed, the double coconut, which grows on palm trees, found only on two islands in the Seychelles archipelago, isolated out in the middle of the Indian ocean, and a full sized double coconut can weigh £40.11 orders of magnitude larger than an orchid seed.

只有幾個細胞組織在一起，這個小瓶中大約有100萬顆斑點珊瑚根的種子，這與世界上最大的種子--雙椰子形成了鮮明的對比，雙椰子生長在棕櫚樹上，只在塞昔耳群島的兩個島嶼上發現，被隔離在印度洋中間，一個完整的雙椰子可以重達40.11英鎊，比蘭花種子大一個數量級。

So ask yourself where else in nature can you find something so different in form that has the same function at our Batra?

是以，問問自己，在自然界中還有什麼地方可以找到形式上如此不同的東西，而在我們巴特拉有同樣的功能？

No one asks.

沒有人問。

Does Darwin's theory of evolution apply to plants also?

達爾文的進化論是否也適用於植物？

Yes, at Hyung lee asks dumb question time, do you think archaeopteryx ricks would have made a good pet?

是的，在亨利問啞巴問題的時候，你認為古翼獸裡克斯會成為一個好寵物嗎？

This replica of an Archaeopteryx fossil hangs on the wall in my office and I look at it every day and biologists have been looking at this fossil for over 100 and 50 years.

這塊仿製的Archaeopteryx化石掛在我辦公室的牆上，我每天都在看它，生物學家看這塊化石已經超過100年和50年。

Some call it the Rosetta Stone of Biology because it contains so much information about evolution and it reveals a creature that displays characteristics of reptiles and of birds.

有些人稱它為生物學的羅塞塔石碑，因為它包含了很多關於進化的資訊，它揭示了一種顯示爬行動物和鳥類特徵的生物。

This is one of the first fossils that gave people an inkling that in fact the birds are living dinosaurs.

這是最早的化石之一，它讓人們隱約感覺到，事實上鳥類是活的恐龍。

Look at the mouth of it up close, you would see little teeth.

近距離看它的嘴，你會看到小牙齒。

It is what some people at the time it was discovered called?

這就是當時發現它的一些人所說的？

Evidence of a missing link.

缺失環節的證據。

If you will evidence of evolution in progress, we know that it lived in the trees.

如果你將進化過程中的證據，我們知道，它生活在樹上。

If you look at the feathers, they are like modern feathers offset and aerodynamic on the wings, which indicates it was soaring or flapping at the time.

如果你看一下羽毛，它們就像現代的羽毛一樣在翅膀上偏移和符合空氣動力學，這表明它當時在翱翔或拍打。

So it would have been a messy pet to have around in the house knocking things over and so forth and it might have given you a nasty bite because it had teeth overall.

是以，它在家裡會是一個混亂的寵物，會把東西打翻等等，它可能會給你一個討厭的咬痕，因為它總體上有牙齒。

It's such an important creature that I think any biologist would love to have one as a pet at john Mace live sent a picture with a question bones found while walking in the woods.

它是如此重要的生物，我想任何生物學家都會喜歡有一個作為寵物在約翰-梅斯現場發了一張照片，上面有在樹林裡散步時發現的問題骨頭。

Any idea what it was bigger than my £50 dog.

有什麼想法嗎，比我的50英鎊的狗還大。

You are looking at the skeleton of a deer and if you look closely you will see that something is missing from that skeleton.

你正在看一隻鹿的骨架，如果你仔細觀察，你會發現這具骨架上缺少一些東西。

You have the top of the skull and it so happens that I have the jawbone from a deer skull right here.

你有頭骨的頂部，恰好我這裡有鹿頭骨的下頜骨。

This part has teeth in the front.

這一部分在前面有齒。

But if you were to go back in the woods and look at the top of that skull, you would find just a bony plate.

但如果你回到樹林裡，看看那個頭骨的頂部，你會發現只有一塊骨板。

No top teeth on a deer.

鹿身上沒有頂齒。

They are pinch and tear herbivores meaning they pinch the vegetation with their bottom teeth against that bony plate and then tear it off.

它們是捏和撕的食草動物，意思是它們用下牙捏住植被，抵住那個骨板，然後把它撕下來。

So you can always tell when you're out in your garden whether it's been a deer attacking your favorite shrubbery or whether it's been something like a rabbit That makes a clean cut.

是以，當你在花園裡的時候，你總是可以知道是鹿在攻擊你最喜歡的灌木叢，還是像兔子這樣的東西，把它切得很乾淨。

Because deer always leave a rough cut on the end of the vegetation that they've been nibbling at.

因為鹿總是在它們所啃食的植被末端留下一個粗糙的切口。

R.

R.

J.

J.

Zenith asks, can dogs and foxes be crossbred or are they two different?

真尼斯問，狗和狐狸可以雜交嗎，還是說它們是兩種不同的動物？

So dogs and foxes are in different what biologists or taxonomists would call genera, They have a different genus.

是以，狗和狐狸處於不同的生物學家或分類學家所說的屬，它們有一個不同的屬。

They're not closely related, they're very very distant cousins.

他們的關係並不密切，他們是非常非常遙遠的表親。

They cannot interbreed and produce viable offspring.

它們不能雜交併產生有活力的後代。

Whereas dogs and wolves are closely related.

而狗和狼是密切相關的。

In fact dogs descend from wolves.

事實上，狗是狼的後代。

They were domesticated from wild wolves only 40,000 years ago, which isn't that long in evolutionary time.

它們是在4萬年前才從野狼中馴化出來的，這在進化時間上並不長。

So those two can definitely hybridized and they often do at India at least 16 asks like how the hell did a fish just get up one day and say I want to walk on land and now here we are like.

是以，這兩種東西絕對可以雜交，而且它們經常在印度做，至少有16人問道："一條魚怎麼會有一天站起來，說我想在陸地上行走，現在我們就在這裡。

It just miraculously turns its gills to lungs and can walk, even though we can't say precisely what things were like at that critical moment that there are creatures in the world that still display some of those characteristics.

它只是奇蹟般地把鰓變成了肺，並且能夠行走，儘管我們不能準確地說，在那個關鍵時刻，事情是什麼樣的，世界上有一些生物仍然顯示出這些特徵。

There are creatures called lungfish which can crawl short distances through the mud to get from one pool to another.

有一種叫做肺魚的生物，可以在泥土中短距離爬行，從一個池子到另一個池子。

We are all familiar with that cartoon image of evolution with the creature emerging from the water and then progressing through a series of forms until there's a human being at the end.

我們都熟悉那種進化的卡通形象，生物從水中出現，然後通過一系列的形式發展，直到最後出現一個人。

It's the most destructive cartoon in the history of science because it gives us this false idea that evolution is a linear progression of one form replacing the other along the path when in fact it's much messier, more complex and more wonderful than that.

這是科學史上最具破壞性的漫畫，因為它給了我們這樣一個錯誤的想法，即進化是一種形式取代另一種形式的線性進展，而事實上它比這更混亂、更復雜、更奇妙。

So yes, there was some creature that first began to emerge from those watery depths onto land, but that led to a great diversity of different pathways.

是以，是的，有一些生物首先開始從那些水深火熱的地方出現在陸地上，但這導致了不同途徑的巨大多樣性。

Once that transition took place at start, soul asks, how will the human species evolve?

一旦這種過渡在開始時發生，靈魂問道，人類將如何進化？

The future of our species is a big question and open to question, but we know a lot about human evolution from looking at the past and the story of human evolution is really in many ways the story of brain size and each time we've seen some increase in the capacity are our brains, biologists and anthropologists have associated that With some change in human behavior that allowed us to gain more calories because brain tissue is what physiologists call metabolically expensive.

我們這個物種的未來是一個很大的問題，有待商榷，但我們從過去的情況中瞭解到很多關於人類進化的情況，人類進化的故事在很多方面確實是關於大腦大小的故事，每次我們看到我們的大腦容量增加時，生物學家和人類學家都將其與人類行為的一些變化聯繫起來，使我們能夠獲得更多的熱量，因為腦組織是生理學家所說的新陳代謝昂貴的。

It takes a lot of fuel to run a brain.

運轉大腦需要大量的燃料。

As many as 20% of our daily calories go to fuel something that's only 2% of our body weight.

我們每天有多達20%的卡路里用於為只佔我們體重2%的東西提供燃料。

So if you want a bigger brain, you're going to have to have more calories to run it.

是以，如果你想要一個更大的大腦，你就必須有更多的卡路里來運行它。

And we've seen that through time as our species has adopted new characteristics, new traits, new habits that have given us more to eat.

我們已經看到，隨著時間的推移，我們的物種已經採用了新的特徵，新的特性，新的習慣，使我們有了更多的食物。

Those things include tool use and social behaviors and cooking the food.

這些東西包括工具的使用和社會行為以及烹飪食物。

So now we are at a period of time where food for many people is plentiful calories are plentiful.

是以，現在我們處於一個對許多人來說食物充足、熱量充沛的時期。

One question for future biologists then will be, how did that change the human brain at fly behavior?

那麼未來生物學家的一個問題是，這在飛翔行為上是如何改變人腦的？

Asks mutant corn for dinner.

要求變異的玉米作為晚餐。

Anyone know what mutation would likely cause the double sized kernels?

有誰知道什麼突變可能會導致雙倍大小的果核？

Well we don't know if it's a mutation at all because sometimes corn or other plants respond in strange ways like that to disease or bacteria or fungi.

好吧，我們根本不知道這是否是一種突變，因為有時玉米或其他植物對疾病或細菌或真菌有類似的奇怪反應。

So we can't say what's making those kernels large in that situation.

所以我們不能說在那種情況下是什麼讓這些內核變大。

But whoever gets that here for dinner will have a bonus at Cheryl row for asks.

但是，誰能在這裡得到這個晚餐，誰就能在謝里爾行得到獎金，因為問。

Can crisper save bananas from the fungal threat?

脆皮機能否拯救香蕉免受真菌的威脅？

Serious question for biology tweets.

生物學推文的嚴肅問題。

It's a serious question for anyone who loves bananas.

對於任何喜歡香蕉的人來說，這是一個嚴肅的問題。

The common banana that we buy in the grocery store is called the cavendish banana.

我們在雜貨店購買的普通香蕉被稱為卡文迪許香蕉。

And unlike many other fruits in the store, the cavendish bananas are not produced from seeds and traditional crop breeding, a banana plant produces offshoots that are easy to separate from that plant that are clones of the banana plant itself.

而且，與商店裡的許多其他水果不同，卡文迪許香蕉不是由種子和傳統作物育種生產出來的，一株香蕉植物會產生容易從該植物中分離出來的分支，這些分支是香蕉植物本身的克隆。

So if you find a banana that has the characteristics that will be successful commercially, it lasts a long time.

是以，如果你找到一個具有商業上會成功的特徵的香蕉，它就能持續很長時間。

It has good flavor.

它有很好的味道。

You can ship it around the world to grocery stores.

你可以把它運送到世界各地的雜貨店。

That is a truly valuable fruit and that's why the cavendish banana is so popular and why it's produced via cloning.

這是一種真正有價值的水果，這就是卡文迪許香蕉如此受歡迎的原因，也是它通過克隆生產的原因。

So when there is a threat like this fungus that lives in the soil and destroys the cavendish banana plant, they're all susceptible to that fungus in the same way CRISPR is a tool in molecular biology that's used for turning on or turning off particular genes within the genome of a species.

是以，當有像這種生活在土壤中並破壞卡文迪許香蕉植物的真菌的威脅時，它們都容易受到這種真菌的影響，同樣，CRISPR是分子生物學中的一種工具，用於打開或關閉一個物種基因組中的特定基因。

So if there is a gene currently turned off in the cavendish banana that could be turned on again to provide resistance, that is a possible solution to this problem.

是以，如果目前在卡文迪許香蕉中關閉的基因可以再次打開以提供抗性，這就是這個問題的一個可能的解決方案。

At A.

在A.

C.

C.

L.

L.

A.

A.

Asks friday debate in the office.

在辦公室問星期五的辯論。

Do plants grow from the bottom or the top?

植物是從底部還是頂部生長？

Well typically plants grow from the top but there are situations that we're very familiar with where that growing part of the plant is lowered down and we see that in our own lawns, grasses have evolved to grow from the bottom in response to grazing by animals.

通常植物從頂部生長，但也有我們非常熟悉的情況，即植物的生長部分被降低，我們在自己的草坪上看到，草已經進化到從底部生長，以應對動物的放牧。

And more recently by the cutting of lawnmowers so that that leaf that you see when we cut it off will be replaced from below.

而最近，通過割草機的切割，使我們割下的那片葉子，你看到的那片葉子將從下面被取代。

But most plants like a fir tree or an apple tree are growing from the tips of their shoots.

但大多數植物，如杉樹或蘋果樹，都是從它們的芽尖開始生長的。

At K.

在K.

Baum wire asks, how does climate change affect wildlife.

鮑姆線問，氣候變化如何影響野生動物。

We often summarize the impacts of climate change on plants and animals with the acronym Mad short for move, adapt or die.

我們經常用Mad這個縮寫來概括氣候變化對植物和動物的影響，Mad是移動、適應或死亡的縮寫。

And we see examples of all three of those playing out in nature all around us between 25 85% of species on this planet are now moving, shifting their ranges in response to climate change, looking for the temperatures and conditions that they're used to.

我們看到，在我們周圍的自然界中，所有這三種情況的例子都在發生，這個星球上25％的物種現在正在移動，轉移它們的範圍以應對氣候變化，尋找它們習慣的溫度和條件。

Many other species are adapting by changing diets or behaviors to try to cope with this crisis.

許多其他物種正在通過改變飲食或行為來適應，試圖應對這一危機。

And yes, some species are dying and going extinct and we also see species struggling to adapt and adjust their relationships to one another.

是的，一些物種正在死亡和滅絕，我們也看到物種在努力適應和調整它們之間的關係。

Fascinating example.

迷人的例子。

Recently out of Gabon in Africa, where for the first time scientists observed chimpanzees attacking a group of gorillas and in fact, even killing one of the gorillas, One of the reasons this may be happening.

最近在非洲的加蓬，科學家首次觀察到黑猩猩攻擊一群大猩猩，事實上，甚至殺死了其中一隻大猩猩，這可能是發生的原因之一。

One of the theories is that there is now a shortage of fruit and other foods for those creatures in that forest because of climate change, creating a new hypercompetitive environment for those two species that used to coexist peacefully at Nico Miller asks, blue eyes are weird.

其中一個理論是，由於氣候變化，現在那片森林裡的水果和其他食物短缺，為這兩個曾經和平共處的物種創造了一個新的超競爭環境，在尼科-米勒問，藍眼睛很奇怪。

What is a f I'm sorry, Oh, can I say that?

什麼是F 對不起，哦，我可以這麼說嗎？

Or what do I say at Nico Miller asks, blue eyes are weird af like honestly, how does a mutation like that even happen, mutations in biology occur in the DNA when it's being copied.

或者我在尼科-米勒問起時怎麼說，藍眼睛很奇怪，說實話，這樣的突變是怎麼發生的，生物學中的突變是在DNA被複制時發生的。

It's not a perfect process, mistakes are made.

這不是一個完美的過程，會有錯誤發生。

Oftentimes those mistakes lead to new features in the organism.

很多時候，這些錯誤導致了生物體的新特徵。

Usually they're not very useful and they disappear over time, but sometimes they can impart a benefit and they persist.

通常它們不是很有用，會隨著時間的推移而消失，但有時它們可以傳授一種好處，而且會持續存在。

This is one of the fundamental ways that new traits are introduced into the evolutionary process.

這是將新性狀引入進化過程的基本方式之一。

Blue eyes were introduced in that way fairly recently in human evolution.

藍眼睛是最近在人類進化中以這種方式引入的。

They have persisted, but no one's quite sure yet what the advantage of blue eyes maybe at terra Luzuriaga asks, how do extinct species come back to the world short answer?

他們一直在堅持，但還沒有人很確定藍眼睛的優勢是什麼也許在地球上Luzuriaga問，滅絕的物種是如何回到世界上的簡短回答？

They don't, they're extinct.

他們不這樣做，他們已經滅絕了。

But there are efforts underway now to try to re create or bring back some extinct species, like the wooly mammoth from ancient D.

但現在正在努力嘗試重新創造或恢復一些已滅絕的物種，如古代D國的毛長毛象。

N.

N.

A.

A.

It's still a work in progress a long way off.

這仍然是一項正在進行的工作，離我們很遠。

But some experts are working on that very question at Lauren are Peters asks if we have evolved from monkeys, why are they not extinct when new species evolve?

但一些專家正在研究這個問題，在勞倫是彼得斯問，如果我們是由猴子進化而來，為什麼在新物種進化時它們沒有滅絕？

It's not necessary for them to replace the species they evolved from.

他們沒有必要取代他們進化而來的物種。

In fact, it's more common for new species to exist side by side with many closely related species.

事實上，新物種與許多密切相關的物種並存的情況更為常見。

At Karu 14 02 asks, is the number of genetically different human beings that can be formed finite.

在卡魯14 02問，可以形成的基因不同的人的數量是有限的嗎？

People are often curious if there might be a doppelganger or someone almost exactly like them out there in the world today or at some point in history.

人們經常好奇，在今天或歷史上的某個時刻，是否可能有一個二重身或幾乎與他們一模一樣的人存在於世界上。

And the fact is we can be pretty close genetically, but every individual is indeed unique.

而事實上，我們在基因上可以很接近，但每個人確實是獨一無二的。

When you consider the number of genes in the human genome 50,000.

當你考慮到人類基因組中的基因數量為50,000。

But also considering the number of base pairs in those DNA molecules, you're talking about billions of different combinations on top of that.

但同時考慮到這些DNA分子中的鹼基對的數量，你正在談論在此基礎上的數十億種不同組合。

It's not just the genes themselves that are crucial, but how those genes are expressed, all of those things can be different among individuals.

關鍵不只是基因本身，還有這些基因的表達方式，所有這些東西在個人之間都可能是不同的。

We're not going to run out of unique individuals anytime soon.

我們不會很快耗盡獨特的個體。

At Ibis journal asks what makes hashtag penguin feathers ice proof?

在Ibis雜誌上問道，是什麼讓hashtag企鵝的羽毛防冰？

They're not just ice proof.

他們不僅僅是防冰。

They are waterproof, structurally waterproof.

它們是防水的，結構上是防水的。

And biologists still aren't sure exactly how that works.

而生物學家仍然不確定這到底是如何運作的。

But if you look microscopically at the veins of those feathers, you see that they trap all sorts of small air pockets and it may be that air preventing water moving through the feather.

但是，如果你從顯微鏡下觀察這些羽毛的脈絡，你會發現它們捕獲了各種小氣囊，可能是空氣阻止了水在羽毛中流動。

That intricate feather vein has thousands and thousands of individual places where the feather surface is pushing against the natural surface tension of the water.

那條錯綜複雜的羽毛脈絡有成千上萬個獨立的地方，羽毛的表面在這些地方推著水的自然表面張力。

Either way, you don't have to worry about penguins getting wet on their skin.

無論哪種方式，你都不必擔心企鵝的皮膚被打溼。

At our Heisman asks, what are some of your favorite unsolved mysteries in biology interpret.

在我們的海斯曼問，你最喜歡的生物學中的未解之謎有哪些解釋。

However you like one of the great mysteries that we've really only discovered somewhat recently is just how mysterious our own genome is.

無論你怎麼喜歡，我們最近才真正發現的一個偉大的奧祕就是我們自己的基因組是多麼神祕。

When the human genome project sequenced our D.

當人類基因組計劃對我們的D.

N.

N.

A.

A.

I think many people thought we would have the recipe book for how to make a human being.

我想許多人認為我們會有如何製造人類的食譜。

But it turned out to be far more complicated than anyone thought because it's not just the sequence of the genome but it's the shape of the molecule.

但事實證明，它比任何人想象的都要複雜得多，因為它不僅僅是基因組的序列，而且是分子的形狀。

It's the genes, it's the patches of D.

是基因，是D的斑塊。

N.

N.

A.

A.

Around the genes that control them.

圍繞控制它們的基因。

It's all sorts of things that combine to see how those genes are expressed and what makes us human.

這是各種各樣的事情，結合起來看這些基因是如何表達的，是什麼讓我們成為人類。

But you don't even have to go into molecular genetics to find mysteries there all around us.

但是，你甚至不必進入分子遺傳學，就能發現我們周圍的神祕之處。

A constant reminder that there's so much to learn about ourselves and about nature.

不斷提醒我們，有很多東西需要了解我們自己和大自然。

Consider something as familiar to all of us as yawning.

考慮一下我們所有人都熟悉的東西，如打哈欠。

We still don't understand why people yawn at Michael McCaul er asks how did Darwin know all that evolution stuff?

我們仍然不明白為什麼人們對邁克爾-麥考爾問達爾文是如何知道那些進化的東西的打哈欠？

He didn't know he learned it As he traveled and explored his world.

他不知道他在旅行和探索自己的世界時學會了這個。

Because in the 19th century it was still widely assumed that everything was created very recently if you will um by the hand of God.

因為在19世紀，人們仍然普遍認為所有的東西都是最近才被創造出來的，如果你願意的話，嗯，是由上帝的手創造的。

And so Darwin was fascinated by geology and how there were species in the rocks in fossils that were no longer present in the modern world.

是以，達爾文對地質學以及岩石中的物種如何在現代世界中不再存在的化石感到著迷。

He came up with the idea of evolution by natural selection.

他提出了自然選擇進化的觀點。

Would help explain how things changed through time and how you had this great diversity of life on the planet.